Schooling makes history with 100m fly bronze
Swimming ace Joseph Schooling gave Singapore an early 50th birthday present by creating history on Saturday (Aug 8) when he won the Republic's first-ever medal at a World Swimming Championships.
The 20-year-old Singaporean finished third in the men's 100m butterfly final with a time of 50.96sec in Kazan, Russia.
He bettered the previous Asian record of 51.00sec set by Japan's Kohei Kawamoto in 2009.
His time would have placed Schooling fourth at the 2012 Olympics.
It was also more than seven-tenths of a second quicker than his previous personal best of 51.69sec, which he clocked en route to winning Singapore's first medal at a Commonwealth Games, in Glasgow last July.
Last night, Schooling again demonstrated the explosive start he had shown in earlier races at the Worlds, bursting from the starting blocks with a reaction time of 0.60s, the best among the final field of eight swimmers.
South Africa's Chad le Clos, who won the 200m fly gold and 100m fly silver at the 2012 London Olympics, won gold with a time of 50.56, while Hungary's Laszlo Cseh (50.87) took silver.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now